Monthly Archives: March 2016

Most crystal-digging people know Super Iron Out as a great solution for taking iron oxide staining off of crystals. I typically use SIO as my first cleaning bath for most of my crystals and jump into the acids later if the stains are stubborn. This winter I was cleaning a small micro-quartz cluster in the (cold) garage and was amazed to find my cluster gained another crystal during cleaning.

Micro-quartz cluster without the SIO crystal

I must have saturated the small amout of cleaning bath and when the temperature lowered the SIO crystal began to form! The next day it turned from clear to super brittle white; and was falling all over, so I put it back in solution and cleaned more crystals with it!

Super Iron out is typically used to clean crystals, but this time I grew a cool crystal!

Another angle showing the really interesting growth patterns. I have a UV LED lamp shining on it to give some contrast.

Was able to pull off some winter prospecting this month! Typically rockin’ season doesn’t start here in the Colorado Rockies until April timeframe, sometimes a bit later when the snow is all melted and the ground good and thawed. But this winter is a little different and I have been out prospecting several times since early February already! Yes, there is snow to contend with, but not enough to keep me indoors!

I was able to hit three different spots so far this winter. All three spots had snow, but there was enough good southern exposed area to have limited snow and somewhat thawed ground.

The first prospecting trip I found signs of quartz and feldspar leading up a hill and followed it. In several cases I found signs of other digging; good news is I was on the right trail; bad news I was on it after others were…but the signs were good and I suspect there are other areas to check out, so chalk this area up to needing another trip!

The second place I started finding some float about 6 inches under the surface. Heading uphill I was able to find several cool crystals (and many more quartz with faces) so I feel confident they did float downhill; but I haven’t found the source yet. Either the original pocket was above present day ground, or there is more searching to do. I’m trusting the latter will yield results and plan to hit this spot again this spring.

interesting quartz crystal coated with hematite giving a very sparkly luster to the stone.

Large five inch smoky quartz float crystal. This one had a fracture and rehealed; must have busted during formation a billion years ago!

This crystal is awesome, the best one I found. It is double-terminated with several coatings, one of white quartz and the other of hematite.

Same crystal as above showing the double terminations and multiple growths.

The third area was one I have visited before, before long I was back into the pocket mud which was very sticky and messy! I found some neat fluorite crystals and some rather odd and interesting quartz. None of these have been properly cleaned but will show you the parallel growth and unique crystal clusters.

I love the larger quartz crystals around the edge, and the elestial growth in the center!

This quartz cluster were terminated everywhere (thousands of times), and differently terminated on both sides. Probably my favorite find of the day! This side has white quartz in parallel elestial growth patterns.

This side had the one larger quartz crystal with the smaller points adjoining it. Can’t see it much here, but it has a tint of green throughout!

I love this fluorite, fairly gemmy and has some purple, otherwise clear. As you gaze into it, it sucks time from existence!

Several pyramid fluorites came out of the this spot. This is the smallest, and gemmiest…I immediately came up with this idea for a photograph, so I carefully wrapped this in newspaper and to my delight it was clear enough to pull off this shot! Fun!

Got my itch to do some prospecting early this spring which was fun! Look forward to heading up again here soon, hopefully! Spring has not yet arrived!

Here are some of the petrified wood pieces that I picked up at my friend’s property in Northeastern Douglas County in Colorado this last weekend. The wood in Douglas County dates back up to 55 million years ago. To put this in perspective, the last phase of tectonic activity formed Rocky Mountains around 80-55 million years ago; so these are wood from the forests on the craggy, new Rocky Mountains! Interestingly, much more recently in time (about 100ish years ago), wood forested from the Palmer Divide was used to build cities like Denver. Forests have covered the land here in east-central Colorado for a long time!

So how did I find it, well, I just walked around and picked it up off of the ground, for the most part. It tended to be all together, so once I found something on the surface, I could search around that area and find more. I also tried digging some, and there was more under the surface as well.